A recent round of comments more or less led this writer to conclude that Joe Carnahan‘s next would — barring a box office and critical disaster for The Grey — be a film adaptation of James Ellroy‘s beloved White Jazz. But, with his latest looking to be a huge hit, someone else has come calling.

As 24Frames reports, Carnahan is now signing a deal with MGM and Paramount to reboot Death Wish, 1974′s Charles Bronson-starring revenge classic, one that ended up being the first in a franchise comprised of five films. Details on this one don’t really go past what’s just been restated, but anyone who’s seen a vigilante story from the past, say, 25 years or so has a familiarity of sorts with the original: everyday man’s family is attacked, everyday man is pushed to the edge and cleans up the streets, audiences walk away feeling satisfied. It’s nothing all too original — even when you remember that it’s nearly forty years old — but the original is a nice piece of violent cinema; the kind we don’t get enough of in the mainstream these days, as a matter of fact.

And if anyone is going to reintegrate that into the multiplex, Carnahan might have the right stuff. Just look at his second film, Narc, which is the kind of tough, gritty material that recalls films from the original Death Wish‘s era. I’d love to see him return to this territory — and, what’s better, he can do so without making a sequel. Would I have preferred to see him take on Ellroy‘s lurid Los Angeles next? Sure, but if another successful studio picture can further fuel a passion project that, make no bones about it, needs the proper funds to truly pay service to its source, so be it. All they have to do now is recast Jeff Goldblum as the leader of the teenage gang.

Are you in any way interested in a Death Wish reboot? How about one from Joe Carnahan?